


Dragons, Plants, Sex and Fun

by Annide



Series: 1998, or the year everything changed [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aromantic Charlie Weasley, Demiromantic Neville, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Post-Battle of Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:10:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7762657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annide/pseuds/Annide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neville and Charlie meet at the Battle of Hogwarts and become good friends, who just happen to enjoy activities such as sex, together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragons, Plants, Sex and Fun

**Author's Note:**

> This fic also follows more than one character : Neville Longbottom and Charlie Weasley

                Things only got worse at Hogwarts when they returned from Christmas holidays. For one, Luna never made it back. With everything her father published in The Quibbler, it was no surprise she would've been taken to pressure him into stopping, but it was a shock nevertheless. The entire DA was worried. Most of all, Ginny became sort of a mess. Neville had suspected for a while that these two liked each other, and he was glad they'd found someone in such a terrible time, but he started feeling lonely leading this rebellious group without much help from his friend.

                After Michael Corner had been tortured for freeing a chained kid, they'd slowed down the DA's more open and risky acts. Then, the Weasleys went into hiding and Ginny never came back from Easter break. Neville constantly got hurt and also tortured by the Carrows who knew him as an important part of this group of rebellion, but he could take the pain. He knew this was all for a more important purpose. After the Death Eaters failed to capture his grandmother as a way to intimidate him, and as they realized no one else was leading the DA but him, the Carrows tried to kill him in late April.

                Neville hid in the Room of Requirement until the Battle of Hogwarts. As he got hungry, he discovered a passageway to the Hog's Head where Aberforth Dumbledore, a member of the Order of the Phoenix as it turned out, provided food not only for him, but for all the other students from the DA who joined Neville in hiding in the following days. When Harry, Ron and Hermione finally showed up, he was incredibly excited to fight once and for all. The shy, clumsy and scared little boy he had been when he'd first gotten to Hogwarts was gone, Neville was ready for the Battle.

 

~~~

 

                Charlie was sitting in the grass, atop a hill, looking over Norberta and her newborn baby dragons who were rolling around trying to breathe fire, still too young to really succeed. Because the dragon sanctuary was already hidden from Voldemort and the Death Eaters, Charlie didn't have to go into hiding like the rest of his family. He simply had to be more careful in his movements outside of it when accomplishing his tasks for the Order, like creating contacts among foreign wizards.

                Charlie always enjoyed new dragons. He liked the new company, the new personalities to get to know and all the time he'd get to spend with them to teach them not to eat the owls, once they'd be big enough for their mother to let humans approach them of course. They'd have trouble with it at first, those birds look delicious to them, but they'd get used to it, and Charlie loved that feeling of accomplishment when a young dragon could finally stand near an owl without trying to make it into its breakfast.

                He liked sitting up here in the dark, late at night. It was peaceful. No one ever bothered him there. He was alone with himself, his thoughts and the dragons. Or he was until an owl came to find him. He knew immediately something serious had happened. Why else would he receive an owl in the middle of the night? Sure enough, it was a message from his family. Harry had finally resurfaced. He, Ron and Hermione were at Hogwarts and everyone was preparing for Battle. Charlie jumped to his feet. He had to go back home and help.

                As he arrived in Hogsmeade, Charlie ran into Horace Slughorn, who was leading friends and families of students who'd stayed to fight towards a passage to the castle so they could lend a hand in the ongoing Battle.

                "What about people in the village? Are they still here?"

                "I don't think anyone talked to them, why?"

                "We should wake them up so they can either evacuate to a safer place or decide to join in protecting the castle."

                "You're right, boy, let's get to work."

                Together, Charlie and Professor Slughorn went door-to-door, waking up Hogsmeade residents who all decided to fight. The castle was silent as they entered it with their new troops. They reached everyone else just as combats started again after a brief interruption during which Harry had been believed dead. Charlie was more than impressed by Neville Longbottom grabbing that sword and slaying Voldemort's snake. Anyone witnessing that moment would've been, it was epic.

                They all fought tirelessly until, finally, it was over. Harry put an end to the Dark Lord's life and the remaining Death Eaters scattered. Charlie found Neville not far from where he was standing.

                "You're the boy my brother Ron kept telling me about through the years, aren't you? The one who kept forgetting his things and wasn't very good in class? You've sure grown out of that. Not doubting your place in Gryffindor anymore, I hope? You really kicked some ass out there."

                "Had to learn a lot in the past few years. Listen, I don't know if you're Bill or Charlie, but-"

                "I'm Charlie."

                "Right. Charlie, I'm very sorry, but earlier during the battle, a curse hit Fred. He didn't make it."

                "Oh no! How's mom? How's George? They must be devastated."

                "Must be. With everything going on, I didn't really have time to see them. We've been gathering all the dead and injured in the Great Hall, let's go find out."

                Neville led Charlie inside the Great Hall where they found the rest of the Weasleys assembled around Fred's body. Arthur extended an arm toward his son as Molly let out a sigh of relief to find him alive. She couldn't have handled losing more than one of her children, she didn't know how to deal with a loss such as this. George looked absolutely destroyed. The others seemed either taken with sadness or still in shock as Charlie was.

                Leaving the Weasleys to their grief, Neville sat with Luna at one of the house tables, the sword of Gryffindor still by his side. Completely exhausted by the events of the last few hours, they mainly looked at the sun rising through the Great Hall's window, appreciating each other's company, knowing the others would come find them if they needed. After a while, food appeared on the tables and they realized they hadn't eaten since the day before. Admirers of Neville joined him for breakfast against his own control and Luna decided to go somewhere quieter.

                "Leave the man alone, will you? We all had a rough night, we're tired and we'd rather just have a nice meal in peace."

                Neville was getting seriously exasperated of all these girls asking him questions about slaying Nagini when a kind voice that sounded like it should still be taken seriously interrupted them. The girls left instantly and Charlie Weasley sat in the now empty space next to Neville.

                "Thanks, they were getting really annoying. But you didn't have to do that, you should stay with your family."

                "Oh no. I can't stay there all day. Ron had to go do something with Harry. My dad, Bill and Percy said they had things to take care of. It's only mom, George and Ginny left and they're a mess. There's nothing I can do. I can't bring him back, I can't make it hurt less. I'm useless over there. Worse, if I spend too much time around them, I start crying and then mom sobs so hard I'm afraid she'll choke on her tears. I had to get away, get some air, talk to people, get my mind off it. So, what are you up to?"

                "What am I up to?"

                "Well, I don't know. I live around dragons all year, they're not exactly big on conversation, I'm a little rusty."

                "Asking someone who's sitting next to you eating breakfast what he's up to is worse than being a little rusty."

                "Well, then let's say I'm a little emotional because I just lost my little brother. Now shut up about that and tell me about what you like to do in your free time."

                "You said you needed some air, so let me show you what I like to do. Leaving this room will change your mind even better."

                "I like how you think."

                Neville led Charlie outside the castle.

                "Ah, fresh air. I love it. It was my favourite thing about playing Quidditch during my years here, you know? Feeling the air on my skin as I flew way up in the sky. I've always loved the outdoors. That's why I took Care of Magical Creatures as an option, and look, I've made it a career."

                "I mainly picked that subject because it's given so far away from the castle and professor Snape, but I enjoyed it by moments. Hagrid brought us some scary creatures I'd rather never have seen though."

                They crossed the schoolyard and Neville entered one of the greenhouses, appearing to know exactly how to find his way among all the plants there. They reached the back corner where cactus-like plants with boils instead of spines were growing.

                "Mimbulus Mimbletonia. I received one for my birthday before fifth year. It's very rare. I've been studying it ever since. I even managed to multiply it. I'm very interested in plants. And Professor Sprout helps me, she lets me use some space in here."

                "Wow, a badass snake slayer who stands up to Voldemort and a Herbology nerd all in one guy, that's hot!"

                Charlie's comment made Neville turn red instantly, which only triggered a smile from the ginger.

                "Not used to getting told you're hot, are you, Neville?"

                "I... Um... No, I mean, I don't think I am? Clearly, you are, in a very obvious kinda way too, but me? Definitely not."

                "I see."

                Charlie grabbed Neville's neck and pulled him close enough to kiss him. He made it very passionate. The whole gardening passion thing was turning him on, the guy was really sexy and he had after all just stood up to Lord fucking Voldemort in front of everyone just a few hours earlier, Charlie was completely going for it. And it worked. Neville kissed back with as much fervor. He put his hands on Charlie's shoulders and pushed him hard enough that they both fell on the ground of the greenhouse with a laugh. Charlie promptly removed Neville's shirt, his lips moving down the other man's neck toward his newly exposed chest.

                They left the greenhouse a few minutes later, certainly more covered in dirt than they were before, but also feeling a lot better.

                "You think anyone'll notice how dirty we are?"

                "Everyone's all dirty and bloody, and too busy with their own stuff to even realize you put your shirt back on the wrong way, Neville."

                "Oh right, for a moment, I forgot about all of this."

                "Me too. Which was kind of the point of visiting the greenhouse in the first place. I wasn't expecting that though."

                "Yeah, me neither."

                "Listen, before we get back inside," Charlie had stopped right in front of the doors to the Entrance Hall of the castle, "can we just talk about what happened for a minute?"

                "Sure."

                "I really didn't mean to make this happen when I came to see you earlier and I don't want to make this look like it was something it wasn't. I don't want to make a big deal out of this. I do want to be friends, but I'm not looking for any kind of romantic relationship ever. I hope having sex with you didn't lead you on, or I'm not hurting your feelings by telling you this now. If so I'm really sorry. I really didn't plan for this. I'm aromantic, I don't feel romantic attraction towards anyone."

                "Don't feel bad about it, Charlie. Neither of us planned this. And it's alright, I'm demiromantic, you don't have to worry about that with me. Now, I really enjoyed our little escapade in the greenhouse. Maybe we should do it again, if we run into each other some other time."

                "Definitely. It was nice meeting you, Neville."

                "Nice meeting you too, Charlie. Please pass along my sympathies to the rest of your family."

                "Will do."

                They waved and each went their own direction. Charlie reunited with the other Weasleys to spend more time grieving Fred. Neville found his grandmother and together they left for St Mungo's to announce Bellatrix Lestrange's fate and the end of the war to his parents.

 

~~~

 

                A week had passed since the Battle of Hogwarts, Neville was now staying in the castle, like the professors and several other people, helping with the whole process of cleaning up and rebuilding what had been destroyed during the fighting. He was alone casting spells to put stones back into place to repair a wall that had fallen down, most likely hit by a giant, when Charlie joined him.

                "Hey, Neville. McGonagall told me where to find you, she thought you might need some help."

                "And that's why you're here?"

                "Yeah. I still have a few weeks until I need to go back to Romania and I thought I'd be more useful here than at home. Also, I can't stand all the memories of Fred floating around the Burrow, and I liked my chances of accidentally running into you here."

                "Accidentally, sure."

                "I swear I did not ask McGonagall where you were. I asked where she needed me and she sent me here."

                "Maybe I'd have less trouble believing that if you were doing less staring at me and more moving stones."

                "Sorry."

                Rebuilding the wall took the entire afternoon and most of the evening, after which they had dinner with the professors in the Great Hall then retreated to the Gryffindor common room, where volunteers were staying. Charlie having left Hogwarts the year before Neville started, he had been in the same dormitory during his years at school. By reflex, he tried to take his old bed.

                "Oh no, that's my bed, take another one."

                "It was my bed when I was at Hogwarts."

                "That was years ago. I'm technically still a student here, I haven't passed my exams yet. Get off."

                "Make me, cause I'm not moving."

                "There are other people around here, Charlie."

                "Are they sleeping in this dormitory?"

                "No, I've been alone in here, but maybe some new people arrived today, just like you did."

                "Did you see anyone new at dinner?"

                "No. Alright, take off your clothes."

                The next morning, they helped Madam Hooch, professor Flitwick and other volunteers repair the damage made to the Quidditch pitch. It took a lot of people working together to take care of such a big space, but it was satisfying work. Afterwards, everyone dispersed. Some went to have lunch, some went to work on other stuff and Charlie put his arm around Neville's shoulders.

                "Have you ever been to the kitchen?"

                "No, no one ever told me where it is. I know it's on that map your brothers gave Harry, that's where they got all that food for the post-Quidditch game parties."

                "Great, let's have lunch there, you'll love it."

                They walked to a room where several house elves were serving lunch on the replicates of the Great Hall tables, plates of food disappearing as soon as it was put down on them. Neville was familiar with house elves, Dobby, who he missed greatly, had been of much help during the year, providing him with bandages and information. He recognized Winky, Dobby's friend, who'd come along with him on several occasions, until she had to take over entirely, something she took pretty hard. After she was fired from her family of wizard, Dobby had been the one to bring her to work here and to help her when she was at her worst. Now that she was finally back on her feet, he got killed and it was a difficult loss for her.

                "Hey, Winky, how are you doing today?"

                "Mister Neville, it's been so long, what brings you here?"

                "I'm helping rebuilding the castle."

                "No, you misunderstood, I meant, what brings you here, in the kitchen."

                "My friend, Charlie, thought it would be a nice place to have lunch. And he was right, it gives me a chance to see you're doing fine."

                "I am! I will not go back to the dark place. Dobby worked too hard to get me out of it for me to just fall back as soon as he's gone. He deserves better than that. He was a very brave elf."

                "Happy to hear that."

                "Yes. Now sit, I'll bring you and your friend lunch."

                Neville and Charlie sat at a table by the unlit fireplace. When Winky came back five minutes later with sandwiches and pumpkin juice, they invited her to eat with them.

                "I couldn't, I have to work."

                "Of course you could, you have to take breaks sometimes. Take one now, please." Charlie insisted.

                "You sound like you could disrupt the work we're doing as much as your brothers did."

                "I'm really not as much of a troublemaker as the twins were. Did they come here often?"

                "I wasn't in a good place when they were still here, but I know they sorted every house elf here into a Hogwarts house. And we've kept the tradition with newcomers. Kreacher turned out to be the bravest Slytherin we've ever seen, coming back to lead us into battle."

                "That means Fred and George must've gotten to know you all pretty well to be able to do this. I bet Dobby was a Gryffindor, wasn't he?" Neville tried.

                "Of course he was."

                "And what house are you, if you don't mind me asking?" Charlie wondered.

                "Hufflepuff. You know, we only clean the common rooms of our own houses now. It makes it all more fun. The twins had a gift for making the most mundane things more fun."

                "Oh, that they did."

                "I meant to ask," started Neville, turning to Charlie, "how's George?"

                "According to dad, he locked himself up in his apartment. He doesn't let anyone in, he doesn't make any sound when they go at the door. Mom tried to get in to see if he's at least eating, but there's no way. People often underestimate the twins because they didn't get a lot of OWLs and they run a joke shop, but they're smart. If George doesn't want to see anyone, no one's gonna be able to get in."

                "Maybe not. Luna told me all about Dobby apparating into the Malfoys' cellar to rescue everyone during Easter break. Wizards couldn't do it, but he could. House elf magic is different than ours, Winky might be able to get in."

                Neville was barely done talking that Winky had already disappeared. She came back a few minutes later, walking directly toward the reserves of food.

                "Your mom was right to worry, Charlie. He looks pale and weak. He's just lying there on the floor and it doesn't look like he's been eating, or doing anything at all. He looked surprised to see me, but he didn't move or say anything."

                "Oh no, this is bad. What are we gonna do?"

                "Calm down, Charlie, we'll figure it out."

                "No need, I'm making him soup and going back there as soon as it's ready. You don't have to worry about it anymore. And tell your family I'll go every day, bring him food and make sure he eats a little."

                Charlie and Neville spent the afternoon hanging out in the kitchen, helping Winky cook some meals in advance for George. They agreed it was better to let the elf go to the apartment alone for now, as the lonely twin had made it clear he didn't want to see anybody yet. Neville was a terrible cook, as it turned out, and Charlie kept making fun of him for it.

                "I'm not sure you could beat even Hagrid in a cooking competition."

                "What? His cakes are like rocks! I'm not _that_ bad."

                "Like rocks for us maybe, but clearly good for half giants, I've seen him and Madame Maxime eat them. Meanwhile, everything you've touched so far today has been ruined."

                "Well, nobody ever taught me."

                "I can see that. From now on, we're making lunch ourselves every day, I'll teach you, you'll need this someday so you don't poison yourself when you stop living here."

                Neville pushed Charlie on the floor and they both burst into laughter. They spent most of their days the same way. They worked on rebuilding the castle during the morning and afternoon, cooked during lunchtime and retreated in Gryffindor tower at night where they would either talk with other people in the common room or enjoy time alone in their dormitory. By late May, when Charlie was due back in Romania, they had become closer friends than anything they had before and it was hard to say goodbye.

                "If George answers the door when you pass by, say hi for me."

                "Of course, and I'll tell him it's safe to eat your food now."

                "I'll miss you, Charlie."

                "I'll miss you too, Neville, but I've got to go back to my dragons. I miss those faces too, and the babies must be so big now."

                "Yes, I shouldn't keep you any longer, travel safe."

                They hugged and Charlie smiled one last time before he walked away. Neville turned around and went back inside the castle, he had work to do.

 

~~~

 

                Neville wrote to his friends regularly. He gave them news about himself and how the reconstruction of the castle was going. He enjoyed hearing about them as well. Harry sent him a letter relating Draco Malfoy moving into Grimmauld Place and Theodore Nott being murdered in front of them for revenge as they were all walking together in Diagon Alley. Hermione told him about Ron and her enjoying Australia with her parents. Luna met his news about Hogwarts with updates on the repairs of her own house. Ginny never put much in her letters and she'd stopped replying altogether by the end of May. Feeling like he might be overwhelming her or making her feel worse by sharing how fine he was while she was struggling, Neville stopped writing to her around mid June.

                Professors and volunteers at Hogwarts kept treating Neville like he was some sort of a war hero and it was starting to get on his nerves. He never asked for any of that, he never wanted any of it. All the pain he had to endure to get there he wished he hadn't and these people simply couldn't understand what it meant to have gone through what he did. He finally got tired of being the one person everyone could always rely on, so he just left one day of early July. He didn't tell anyone, not McGonagall, not Sprout, not Hagrid, he didn't even write to any of his friends. He just packed his things and left. He spent a whole week wandering across Europe, studying the flora of different places, and looking for rare plants before he unmistakeably ended up in Romania.

                "Neville, what a nice surprise. What's up?"

                Charlie asked when Neville unexpectedly appeared at his door.

                "Can we talk later? I'm tired and I haven't had sex in a month."

                "Alright then."

                Neville stayed in Romania for a month. He spent a lot of time studying the local flora while Charlie worked and he wrote to professor Sprout regularly about his discoveries. The two friends had a lot of fun hanging out so far away from everything that had happened, all the tragedy, all the pain and all the losses. Out here, it seemed only fun, peacefulness and their passions for plants and dragons existed.

 

~~~

 

                Upon his return to Hogwarts, Neville's presence was requested in the Headmistress' office. He expected to be reprimanded in some way for leaving without notice before the rebuilding was done, but he knew professor McGonagall to be an understanding person, in her own way.

                "Mr Longbottom, I would like for you to inform me of your intention of leaving next time. I found myself quite worried not to find you here suddenly."

                "I'm sorry. Everything became so overwhelming. I needed some time away."

                "Oh, I perfectly understand why you had to go. I did not care for the way you did it, without telling me or anyone else."

                "It won't happen again, I promise."

                "I certainly hope so. I'd also like to inform you that we had to complete the rebuilding without you. We wanted to make sure everything was done before the new school year began."

                "Oh, right, sure. Then, I guess I should've gone straight home, not here."

                "No, I wanted to see you before you did. Professor Sprout has been telling me how promising of an Herbology student you've been. She says she'd like some help preparing lessons and caring for all those plants in the greenhouses. How would you like becoming assistant professor for Herbology class? You would of course get your own living quarters in the castle and be expected to act in the respectable manner of any professor."

                "Are you serious?"

                "Have you known me to be making a lot of jokes, Mr Longbottom?"

                "Of course not, I'm sorry. It'd be an honour to be assistant professor, professor McGonagall."

                "Then I suggest you go join professor Sprout in the staffroom and get all the details of your new job."

                Neville didn't have to be told twice, he practically ran there. He was incredibly excited that he got to stay at Hogwarts to help teach students about his passion. That night, he wrote to Charlie to announce him the good news. He didn't send letters to his other friends though. Hermione, Ginny and Luna were coming back for their last year and he wanted to keep it a surprise.

 

~~~

 

                Halloween was a Saturday and students were allowed to visit Hogsmeade that weekend. Since Hermione, as a student, wasn't allowed to leave except for holidays, Harry and Ron thought it'd be a great occasion to visit her and Neville, and have a butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks.

                "Where's Ginny? I thought she might've been with you, she wrote me you've been hanging out a little. I haven't seen her since the Battle." Ron asked.

                "Oh, I wished you'd told me you wanted to see her too. She's with Luna, probably hanging out with Aberforth. If you want, we can swing by later." Hermione apologized.

                "I haven't been here all summer while my little sister's been struggling, of course I want to go see her."

                "I hope Ginny isn't over there avoiding me." Harry suggested.

                "Oh no, she just apparently used to hang out at the Hog's Head early in the summer when she was really having trouble with everything and she wanted to show Aberforth she's doing better now."

                "I'm glad she's doing better. And George went through hell too apparently and they had to close the shop for a while, but he's dealing now. I still can't get used to the black hair though." Ron said.

                "But can you imagine waking up every morning and seeing your dead brother's face looking at you in the mirror though? George probably couldn't handle it, that's why he dyed his hair. He did it the morning he left the apartment for the first time. Winky told me his hair was still ginger up to that point." Neville explained.

                "That's right, Kreacher told me she was bringing him food and making sure he wasn't starving in there. So she was giving you news of how he was doing?" Harry added.

                "Yes, and I shared those with Charlie and Mr and Mrs Weasley."

                "Yeah, talking of Charlie," Ron started, "did you actually go all the way to Romania just so you could have sex with my brother?"

                "That's not all we did. We had fun, sure, but it wasn't all sex, all the time. You're exaggerating a little."

                "What do you two even have in common? What do you two ever talk about?"

                "He talks to me about dragons, I talk to him about plants. We both had to go through some stuff during the war too. I'm also friends with some members of his family like you and Ginny, so there's that. "

                "I still don't like this."

                "Your brother and I are good friends who like to have sex with each other, that's it. You don't have to make a big deal out of it."

                "Yes, Ron, let them sort out their feelings themselves and mind your own business."

                "There are no feelings involved, Hermione. Neither of us feels romantic attraction. We aren't interested in romantic relationships, so this works out great for both of us. Maybe if we lived in the same country, we could have a queerplatonic relationship, but his dragons are in Romania and I have this nice job at Hogwarts. We're both perfectly happy being friends who have sex whenever we run into each other."

                "And I'm very happy for you, but I would be happier hearing less about people's sex lives." Harry said, making everyone laugh.

                The four of them spent the afternoon walking around the village, visiting Zonko's and Honeydukes, pretending they were all still Hogwarts students without responsibilities, just having fun like good old times.


End file.
